Ace, Alone
by Pomodoridori
Summary: the storm hawks find dark ace stranded, alone, and injured on a faraway mysterious terra. They won't leave him to die, but his loyalty to cyclonia is unquestionable. What will the storm hawks do?
1. Chapter 1

They found him face-down in the dirt and shivering with cold. It was a rainy, muddy, _miserable_ day, and for the Storm Hawks, it had just gotten one bit worse.

They thought he was dead, at first. But then the man had moved, and Aerrow had said, "We have to go check on him."

"But Aerrow, he's a Cyclonian!" Finn's voice had gotten kind of high pitched, like it did when he was nervous.

"Exactly. Cyclonians don't go back for their troops. We wouldn't be Sky Knights if we let him die."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Finn fidgeted some. "I still don't like it."

Aerrow shrugged. "I don't like it either, but I'd never be able to sleep if we didn't help."

Piper sighed. "Stop stalling, you two, let's go and check on the bastard." She kneeled by the man and touched his neck to feel for a pulse: the man gasped and jerked away and then moaned in pain when his leg moved.

Piper's eyes got wide.

"Piper? What's wrong?" Aerrow asked before jogging over. "His injuries can't possibly be- _oh._ "

Finn was watching from the distance with wide eyes, fingering the trigger on his crossbow. "Hey guys, mind clueing me in?"

But Aerrow was too stunned to respond.

"Come and see for yourself, Finn." Piper's voice was tight with tension.

When Finn saw, he whispered, "Holy _shit_ , dude, is that really him?"

Aerrow swallowed, then croaked, "Yeah. I'd recognize his ugly mug anywhere."

Piper's mouth flattened into a hard straight line. "We're going to have to take him back to the Condor. There's something wrong with his leg, and if we leave him out here in the mud while we retrieve the Chroma crystals he's probably going to die."

Aerrow bit his lip. "It's _Dark Ace_ , Piper, if we bring him onto the Condor-"

"We'll keep him under lock and key," Piper cut across Aerrow. "Aerrow, think of the possibilities- we could use him against Cyclonia! He's one of their biggest assets, I'm sure we can get information out of him! And having him out of the Cyclonian's hands can only be a good thing. With Dark Ace gone, the Sky Knights will finally have a chance! This could be a turning point in the war!"

Aerrow bit his lip. "Piper, he's _dangerous._ Who knows what he'll do when he wakes up? I'd rather wait for reinforcements-"

"Aerrow, I hear what you're saying. But we can't wait for other Sky Knights to show up. We just don't have the time."

Aerrow frowned. "Piper…"

"Aerrow, _please_ listen to me. We can't afford to lose this chance."

Aerrow sighed heavily. "You're right, Piper. Still, I don't like the idea of him being on the Condor…"

"Me neither," Finn added.

"Yeah, I don't like it. But until we can contact another team about this, we're gonna have to keep him." Piper was looking at Ace's leg curiously. "Ugh, it's really deformed."

"Hm," Aerrow said, "Do you think we could keep him in the hold?"

Piper nodded. "There's a compartment down there that used to be an electricity routing room but Stork had all the electrical wires removed- that would be a safe place to keep him locked up. There's nothing in there that he could mess with."

Aerrow nodded. "Okay. That sounds good to me."

"I don't like this, dude," Finn groused.

Getting the Dark Ace onto the Condor was an exercise in difficulty.

"We can't touch his leg," said Piper.

Finn frowned. "Why not?"

"'Cause it's been crushed. If it shifts too much a bone shard might slice open a blood vessel."

"Oh, yeah, that wouldn't be good, would it?"

"But Piper," Aerrow huffed, "if we move him at all his leg's gonna get messed up. Aren't we going to have to splint it or something, first?"

Piper groaned and scratched at her head. "Man, I don't remember, it's been _years_ since I had to do first aid stuff…and even if I _did_ remember I wouldn't be able to, y'know, _do_ anything. I don't have any practical experience."

Aerrow sighed. "Finn, could you go get Stork? He's the only one who's good with injuries and stuff."

"Yeah, I'll get him, but he isn't gonna be happy about this." Finn trotted off to the Condor.

He returned a good ten minutes later, dragging a _very_ unhappy looking Stork and a slightly-more-cheerful yet nervous Junko over to Aerrow and Piper.

"So it's true," Stork groaned, glaring at Ace's prone body.

"I wouldn't lie to you, bro!" Finn sounded offended.

Stork ignored him and set the emergency kit next to Ace's head. Aerrow, Finn, Piper, and Junko watched while Stork inspected the Dark Ace.

"Ugh, yeah, he's gonna need his leg put in a splint. I'd reduce it properly, but I don't know how 'cause I'm not a doctor." Stork opened up the emergency kit and pulled out the splint. "We're _so_ doomed, by the way-can y'all help me hold his leg?"

An hour later, and Dark Ace was deposited onto a small air mattress on the floor of the old electrical room (Stork had vanished immediately to go scrub his hands). He was sweating and every once in a while he'd make a pained noise, but- Dark Ace was still unconscious for now.

Fortunately.

"We'll have to set watches." Aerrow announced. "We're gonna need at least one person to be watching this room at all times, and also we're gonna have to figure out when we're gonna feed him."

"Hm," Junko grunted, "I think it'd be easiest to feed him whatever we're having to eat, y'know?"

"That's a great idea, Junko!" Piper agreed, smiling. "We'll just cook an extra portion of whatever we're having."

"Watching him is gonna be boring, though…"

Aerrow raised an eyebrow. "We still have to do it, Finn. We can't risk him escaping."

"Can't we just tie him up?"

"Sure, but we're still gonna have watches."

Finn pouted and crossed his arms. "Fine."

When Dark Ace woke, he was alone. The first thing he was aware of was the throbbing scraping needling pain in his leg. He couldn't focus on much else. _It hurts so bad._

His face was hot. He thought he was sweating, but he couldn't be sure.

And he was on his back.

Hadn't he fallen on his face?

Dark Ace closed his eyes miserably and wished that his leg would stop hurting. It was dark and dank and musty and everything was spinning. His mouth was pasty dry, too.

The next thing he knew was the lights above being snapped on and something being forced down his throat: when he choked on it he spat up blood and water. He felt nauseous, but when he tried to turn to the side to puke his leg went white-hot with pain and he had to stop. He was shaking, hard, and definitely sweaty.

"Hey," said a voice he didn't recognize, "you need to take this medicine, okay?"

Ace opened his mouth to respond and instead of words coming out it was vomit, and he felt red-hot shame as he puked all over his belly.

"Ew," said another voice, high pitched and squealing, "I am _not_ cleaning that up!"

"Fine, but I'm not cleaning it either. We'll make Radarr do it, I guess."

Ace groaned out an apology- gods, he was embarrassed!- and accepted the hand offering to pull him up so he was sitting. The puke, still warm, slid down to rest on his lap in a disgusting mess. Ace winced.

Ace blinked as the world swayed, and then he finally got a glimpse of the face of the person who was helping him. He squinted. "Do I know you?" he rasped.

The person-kid, because it was definitely a kid- looked alarmed for a second before saying, "No! Nope, you don't know me. Just, erm, just take this medicine!"

They shoved a glass of water and a pill into his hands and Ace stared at it for a second before remembering that he was supposed to swallow it. His leg was throbbing.

Ace took the medicine and lowered himself back onto his back. _I'm so fucking tired._

"Erm, I'm just gonna, get someone to clean this up, okay?"

Ace made a noncommittal noise and closed his eyes. He fell into an uneasy sleep before the kid had even left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Ace woke, the vomit was gone and there was a blanket tossed over him. His leg was hurting, but the medicine had taken the sharpness of the pain and dulled it down to a deep bruising throb. It was still incredibly uncomfortable, though. And Ace needed to pee, too.

His thoughts were still cloudy, but clearer than they had been before. _Must be the medicine._ Ace closed his eyes to concentrate and tried to remember what had happened. _There was a kid. And I know I've seen them around before…but where?_

 _Wait. Where am I?_ Ace opened his eyes and glanced about the room. The walls were discolored, rusty in patches, and somehow something about it seemed familiar. Ace scrunched his nose up. _God damn it._

With a wince, Ace pushed himself up so he wasn't lying flat on his back. His leg gave a warning pang and Ace ignored it, placing his hands on either side of the mattress. He pulled his good leg underneath himself, and then pushed himself upwards on his hands and leg.

He got his butt about a foot above the ground before his injured leg seized up and Ace yelped, instinctively dropping himself back down and clutching at the leg. His breath hissed between his clenched teeth until the worst of the pain eked away, and then, begrudgingly, Ace curled on his side, defeated.

He dozed for a bit, sliding in and out of memories, trying to ignore his increasingly uncomfortable bladder, until he heard footsteps nearing the door. Ace rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and listened. The footsteps paused for a long time outside the door. Ace yawned. _What the hell are they waiting for?_

Then they opened the door, and all of a sudden Ace understood.

"You!" he spluttered, because of all the things he'd been expecting it _hadn't been this._

"Me," agreed the redheaded _brat_ who Ace had been wanting to best in combat since day fucking one.

Ace snarled. _Fuck! Fuck! What the fuck!_ "What are _you_ doing here?!"

The redhead smirked. "I'm bringing you lunch. Unless you're going to puke this up, too?"

Ace felt his face heating up with anger and fought to keep it under control. "I'm not going to vomit, you fucking twat."

Aerrow gave him a cheeky smile. "You know, it's probably not the best idea to be so rude, you being our prisoner and all."

Ace bared his teeth. "Fuck you."

Aerrow laughed. "Even after we rescued you, too!"

Ace glared at him.

"Okay, okay, here, eat. We don't want you dead, after all." Aerrow bent over and held the tray out to Ace, who reluctantly took it.

Ace saw his chance. "Oh?" he asked in his most honeyed voice, "And why don't you?"

Aerrow gave him a _look_ , and said, "You're smart. You know."

Ace's mouth thinned. "I will not betray Master Cyclonis so easily."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Aerrow replied, before walking to the door and sitting against it to stare Ace down.

A few strained moments passed as Ace inspected the food. It was unidentifiable and smelled vaguely of fish. It reminded Ace of the nasty things Master Cyclonis had cooked for him when she was really little and learning. He frowned at the memory of six-year-old Cyclonis, shoving a plate of burnt scrambled eggs at him, demanding him to taste it. He wrinkled his nose, and then glanced up to glare back at Aerrow.

"Are you going to sit there and watch me eat, kid? That's creepy, you know."

Aerrow raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I am, or else you'll try to keep the fork and then stab someone with it."

Ace grunted and set the tray aside. "Actually. I need you to help me up."

"Uhm. Why the heck would I even do that?"

Ace felt his mouth get hard and flat. "I need to use the bathroom."

"Oh." For once, Aerrow looked like he was at a loss. "Right, uhm, sure. Yeah."

The teen stood and awkwardly made his way over. "So, I need to help pull you up?"

Ace grunted. "I might scream, but you need to keep pulling me until I'm all the way onto my feet."

"Even if you keep screaming?" Aerrow looked a little pale.

Ace shrugged. "Yeah. Once I'm actually on my feet it won't be so much of a problem. It's just...getting there that hurts."

Aerrow seemed to struggle with something, internally, before reaching over and offering Ace his hand.

Ace blinked, sighed, and then took it (he decided against using it to flip Aerrow over. Now wasn't the time for demonstrating unusual skills. Ace would need all the tricks up his sleeves to escape, later). Ace was _not_ looking forward to the pain of standing, but his bladder was telling him that there was no way he could postpone this longer.

"Okay," Aerrow said, "I'm going to pull you up as fast as I can."

Ace huffed. "Okay."

And then Aerrow yanked him up, and Ace yelped when it jostled his leg, but he pushed with his good one and pulled with his arms, and managed to teeter to his feet, clutching at Aerrow like he was an inanimate piece of furniture. Aerrow grumbled something at him, but Ace was concentrating too hard on regulating his breathing to be able to hear him properly. _Oh, fuck. My leg does_ not _like this._

"So, uh, now what?" Aerrow was trying awkwardly to disentangle himself from Ace's clutching hands, but Ace was having none of it.

"Dumbass, don't move around like that, it _hurts_!" (and it did.)

"Well, _excuse me_ for not wanting your greasy paws all over me!"

"Greasy? Fuck you!"

"Hey! I'll just drop you, you know!"

Ace clutched at him harder. "Don't you _dare_ shove me over. I'd fall!"

Aerrow huffed in annoyance. "Fine. How are we going to do this again?"

Ace growled. _This is the most embarrassing. I hate this so much. Worse than babysitting._ "Well, I suggest you open the door so we can start walking."

"Not what I meant," Aerrow grumbled, and then grabbed at Ace's right arm.

"Oi! What're you doing!" Ace tried yanking it back, but had to stop when his weight suddenly shifted to his left leg and he couldn't breathe.

Aerrow finished pulling Ace's arm over his shoulder. "I'm helping you, Ace. Good lord."

Ace wheezed out something insulting but then they began limping forward and Ace was too busy figuring out how to drag his leg without it making him cry to pay much attention to what Aerrow was saying in response.

It took forever to arrive at the foot of the stairs. Ace was sweating and shivering and leaning heavy on Aerrow. He was in too much pain to care about appearances at this point, anyway. "Oh, fuck, stairs," he wheezed.

"We'll just take the stairs one at a time, okay?" Aerrow was getting impatient. It had taken nearly five whole minutes to guide Ace to the foot of the stairs, and Aerrow was _tired_ of being the man's crutch. Wrinkling his nose, he decided the Cyclonian could probably also use a bath.

"What other choice do we have?" Ace grumbled, and then took a tentative step up with his good leg. His left leg was throbbing, but not too badly. That is, until Ace had to move it across the ground and then _up_. He could feel the ends of his bone pulling apart when he lifted it, pinching muscles, and _that_ tore a shriek from his throat. Aerrow flinched away from the sound but couldn't go far as Ace's hand was fisted in the back of his shirt.

"Uhm, Ace? Are you okay?" Aerrow asked.

"No," Ace gasped, "I can't move my leg like that."

When Aerrow looked better at the Dark Ace's face, he noticed that tears were leaking out from Ace's eyes. _It's no joke. Damn, I really can't stand to watch anybody suffer like this. Even a murderer like Dark Ace._

"Let's take a break," Aerrow suggested.

"No," Ace snapped, "I have to do this."

"I'm going to go get someone."

"What, so you can laugh at poor stupid Dark Ace and his broken leg?"

"No, so they can carry you up the stairs."

Ace gave Aerrow a calculating look, then asked, loftily, "And if they drop me?"

Aerrow shrugged. "You'd fall."

Ace huffed, seemed to think about it, then decided: "Fine. But hurry up, I need to pee."

Aerrow lowered Ace down so he was sitting with his back to the wall and his legs spread along the bottom of the stairwell. "Don't go anywhere," Aerrow said, and Ace rolled his eyes.

"Obviously I _can't_ , Storm Hawk."

Ace was glad for the break so he could catch his breath. He felt shaky and his leg was _really_ starting to hurt. Ace closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. _So I've been caught by this new band of kids claiming they're proper Sky Knights. It's ridiculous._

 _I remember when the Storm Hawks wasn't a bunch of kids._ Ace frowned. _And they've taken shit care of the Condor as well. Was that the electrical room they stuck me in? What the hell did they do to it, reroute the wires?!_

Ace opened his eyes when he heard Aerrow returning, alongside a pair of heavy-sounding footsteps.

"Do I have to?" (the voice was deeper than Aerrow's, and accompanied by a slight humming- probably from one of the Wallop dialects, Ace thought)

"Yes, Junko, you're gonna need to carry him back, too."

"Awww, man..." (this was a whine, and a little more grumbly, too)

The pair rounded the end of the corridor and came into view. The Wallop was smaller than Ace had expected, but he'd definitely be big enough to carry Ace. Ace sighed.

Aerrow trotted down the stairs and the Wallop followed more cautiously.

"Ace, this is Junko."

Ace grunted.

Junko held out a hand. "Hello, it's nice to meet you again. The first time you were unconscious."

Ace accepted his hand warily and shook it. The Wallop had a strong grip, and Ace would have winced but for his pride.

Suddenly, the Wallop was squatting down and scooping Ace up like a ragdoll and Ace yelped out of reflex. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm picking you up," Junko replied, sounding a little confused, "that's what you needed, right?"

Ace squirmed, then stopped when pain ran up his leg, then huffed, "Yeah."

Ace sat in awkward silence as the kid walked up the stairs and then down the hall to deposit him in front of the bathroom. "...thanks," Ace mumbled.

"You're welcome. I'm also carrying you back."

"Huh," Ace said, before dragging himself into the bathroom and locking the door. He ran his hand down the side of his face (it was prickly and he needed to shave). _Ugh. I just want to go back to bed._


End file.
